Pretty Extraordinary
by WasJustAReader
Summary: Jim Beckett and Rick Castle consider their daughters. Post Knockout


The next time she woke, the sun was shining brightly on her face. The room was quiet other than the steady beeping of her heart monitor and the slow drip of an IV feeding antibiotics into her body. The clock on the wall opposite her bed read 3:40. Glancing to her right, she smiled. She wasn't alone in the room. Curled cat-like in a chair by the window was Alexis Castle.

Headphones in, and nose in a book, to most, the girl would appear to be fully ensconced in some other realm. But Kate wasn't fooled, watching the girl through her lashes, she saw there was a tiny crease in the middle of her forehead, a miniature of the one her father wore whenever he was worried, and every so often her eyes would flick away from her book and toward the bed where Kate lay.

Almost as if she knew she was being watched, Alexis put down her book and removed her headphones, stowing both her iPod and the novel in a bag at her feet. Kate watched the girl stretch and stand, running her fingers through her hair and yawning before coming to perch on the chair right next to Kate's bed. She just sat there quietly for a minute or two before hesitantly speaking.

"I don't know what you and dad have and haven't talked about yet, but I sure hope you at least heard what he told you after… after everything," she stammered.

Kate's heart was in her throat, she wanted so much to open her eyes and assure Alexis, that yes, she had heard her father and that the feeling was mutual, but she had a hunch that if she did that, the girl would be embarrassed and clam up, and Kate wanted to hear what else she had to say.

"I guess I just want you to know that he's not the only one who cares about you, well aside from the obvious people of course, like your father and Detectives Ryan and Esposito and Dr. Parish. I love my dad and I care about you too. You make him happy and I wish you two would just…."

Alexis paused and sighed, frustrated, searching for the right words. "Just get your shit together!" She blurted out before laughing nervously and blushing. "Sorry, that was kind of harsh. But yeah, please get well soon, we need you. All of us."

By now Kate was trying hard to hold back tears that were dangerously close to falling and betraying her sleeping façade. That girl, despite their outward polarities, was so much like her father. She had that Castle heart of gold. Thankfully Alexis rushed out of the room as soon she finished speaking and Kate was able to open her eyes and let the tears fall.

Her solitude only lasted a moment or two though before it was broken by the reappearance of Alexis, this time with her father. "Kate? Kate, what's wrong? What hurts? Should I call a doctor?" he fussed, rushing toward her the moment he saw her tears. Alexis however, hung back near the door, biting her lip.

Kate smiled, "No, no, I'm not in pain, don't call anyone."

Castle still looked distressed. "Then what's wrong?"

She smiled again, glancing over at Alexis, "Absolutely nothing. It's just… your daughter, she's a pretty extraordinary young woman."

"Uh… yeah, yeah she is," he stammered, looking baffled while Alexis smiled back at Kate and blinked back tears of her own.

A few days later, Rick Castle and Jim Beckett stood outside Kate's hospital room watching a scene unfold inside. This was not the usual medical drama and flurry of doctors and nurses, nor was it a lonely image proving just how hospital beds somehow managed to make any occupant look small and helpless. No, this was just life.

Detective Kate Beckett was propped up in bed, hair loose around her face, laughing heartily at something the young woman sitting cross legged in front of her had just said. The two were playing cards and both were smiling.

As Alexis leaned in to impart some unknown secret of the game, or girlhood, or national security, who knows, Jim Beckett turned to the man standing next to him. "Your daughter's really something, you know that? She's good for Katie. I haven't heard her laugh like that in a long time."

Castle smiled, tearing his gaze from the two women in the room and meeting his companion's eyes. "Yeah, well the feeling is mutual. Your daughter is pretty extraordinary herself. Alexis really looks up to her."

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence before being noticed by the women. "Dad! Mr. Beckett! I beat Kate!" Alexis called to the doorway.

"Did you now?" inquired Jim as the two men entered the room.

"Only 'cause I let her," Kate clarified.

At this, her father laughed and Castle chimed in with a "Better luck next time, Kate," and a wink.

She just rolled her eyes.

Alexis had put away the cards and was about to sit back down on the bed when her father spoke, "We had better get going. You've got school tomorrow, young lady."

She sighed. "I guess."

Jim Beckett held up a hand to stop them. "Just one more thing. I propose a toast."

Kate looked confused. "Dad, we're not drinking. Though what I wouldn't give for a cold one…" He shushed her before she could finish, and Castle grinned.

"I know, I know, but the sentiment holds." He held up an imaginary glass and looked at Castle. "To our extraordinary daughters."

Rick smiled and raised his own imaginary glass. "Here, here."


End file.
